Wyomissing ‘D’ earns an A-plus

Last month, Wyomissing’s defense, torched for 37 second-half points by Muhlenberg, offered about as much resistance to the Muhls as Georgia did to General Sherman.

Since then, however, the unit has been on a mission.

It continued Saturday afternoon, when a strong effort from Marcus Line, Joe Brice and the rest of their defensive mates spearheaded a 35-7 Berks Inter-County Section 2 victory over visiting Hamburg.

Line had a fumble recovery and an interception, and Brice delivered his usual dose of bone-jarring hits to help Wyomissing (4-0, 6-1) remain atop Section 2, a game ahead of hard-charging Twin Valley and Holy Name.

“I tell you what,” Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum. “I think we’re moving to the ball very well, and we don’t lose our heads when we give up a big play.”

Against the Hawks (2-2, 4-3), Spartans provided most of the big plays on both sides of the ball.

Line, a 6-1, 195-pound junior cornerback, fell on a loose ball on Hamburg’s first play from scrimmage, and two plays later Brice, who rushed for 116 yards, crashed in from the 1.

“Something like that is huge,” Line said. “It really sets the mood for the game, getting a play like that right in the beginning.”

On the next possession, Corey Robinson hit Evan McCready on a picture-perfect pump-and-go that resulted in a 40-yard scoring pass. And when Hamburg answered with a 70-yard punt return for a TD from do-it-all junior Jordan Ernst to make it 14-7 with 2:05 left in the opening quarter, it looked like shootout city.

But the Spartans tightened the screws from there, and made sure the Hawks remained grounded. They registered four sacks — one apiece from Brice, McCready, Alex Bohr and Ryan McDonough — in holding the super-mobile Ernst to negative-13 yards rushing and just 24 passing yards.

“We tried to stop him from running,” said Line, “and when he did run out of the pocket, we wanted to make sure he wasn’t able to throw it deep.”

Down 21-7, the Hawks were still in it midway through the third quarter before Matt Brice recovered a fumble at the Spartans 23 to blunt what could have been a key drive.

Then Joe Brice bulldozed 31 yards, through about half of the Hawks defenders, to set up a Jason LaFata 12-yard scoring run on the first play of the fourth quarter that basically sealed it as Wyomissing won its 16th straight over Hamburg.

Andrew Paolini ran for a touchdown and caught a TD pass to go along with 107 combined yards, and McCready caught five balls for 83 yards before leaving with a lower leg injury late in the first half.

On this day, the Spartans “D” earned an A-plus.

“This defense seems to bend a little,” said Wolfrum, whose squad has allowed an average of just 5.0 points per game since the Muhls loss. “But that’s four straight games where we’re not giving up more than one touchdown. And a couple of those times they (the TDs) have been on special teams or were against our second team. Really, statistically, since that Muhlenberg game, the defense has done a great job.”